Hillbilly Elegy

suffer from indigestion (which feels
about the same).
The only discretionary part of the
exercise is dessert, set aside on small
plates at the end of the assembly line.
During the first meal of boot camp, I
grabbed the offered piece of cake and
marched to my seat. If nothing else
tastes good, I thought, this cake shall
certainly be the exception. Then my
drill instructor, a skinny white man with
a Tennessee twang, stepped in front of
me. He looked me up and down with his
small, intense eyes and offered a query:
“You really need that cake, don’t you,
fat-ass?” I prepared to answer, but the
question was apparently rhetorical, as he